


The Witch's Curse

by NightFury812



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Angst, Curses, Drama, Fluff, Friendship, Halloween, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mystery, Romance, Sexual Content, Sexual Tension, Supernatural Elements, Suspense, Swearing, Vampires, Werewolves, Witches
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-25
Updated: 2015-09-27
Packaged: 2018-04-23 06:31:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4866662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightFury812/pseuds/NightFury812
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ashton finds a near lifeless body on his front porch one night. After one soul bonding experience, witch's curse, and eye opening realization later, they're both struggling to stay sane under the sheer amount of insanity. The only way to beat the curse is together, but first it will break them. Piece by piece...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Boy on the Doorstep

Slamming on his brakes until he came to a complete stop in his gravel driveway, Ashton grabbed his backpack and clambered out of the old car. Today was an absolute nightmare and all he wanted was to go to bed before starting it all over again in the morning. He was only going to get six hours of sleep at most before he needed to go to work tomorrow morning. Honestly, he hadn’t eaten anything since noon either. The schedule he had going on was too tight, but there was nothing he could do about it right now.

He stumbled towards the side of the small house he rented out with one of his friends. Mike was a cool guy and didn’t give him any crap like everyone else did. Unlike him, Mike only had a part time job to pay for the rent and took three classes at a nearby university. Meanwhile, Ashton was drowning himself with an overabundance of responsibilities.

“I need a day off,” Ashton groaned quietly, his right shoulder sagged against the weight of the heavy backpack. Between classes, his two jobs, and street performing, he was exhausted. The amount of stress piling up on him was suffocating at best. Everything that could have went wrong today, went wrong though.

He stopped like usual to fish out the spare house key from one of the potted plants along the cracked concrete path.Yet when his fingers didn’t brush against the tiny metal object, he frowned and brushed his fingers harder through the potted dirt.

“Mike, I’m going to kill you,” Ashton groaned through gritted teeth as he set his backpack down and sighed. After pulling nearly all the backpack’s contents out he fished out his actual key at the bottom before jamming all his stuff back inside. He made a note to forget all the good thoughts about how Mike was a good housemate. Stupid idiot forgot to leave the key outside. It was probably just sitting out on the kitchen table.

Hopping sluggishly up the five wooden steps leading up to the front door, Ashton yelped as his foot landed on something at the top and he fell ungracefully to the ground. He lied face-planted there for a couple seconds in plain disbelief before growling in sheer frustration. What the hell did he do to deserve a shit day like this?

Picking himself up was impossible with the backpack on, so he shrugged it off, about to drag it inside the house. Then his hazel eyes locked onto what he tripped over by accident.

His lungs stopped working due to shock as he took in the sight of the dead looking guy on the ground behind him. The boy looked a few years younger than him, but he had obvious wounds decorating his lanky body. It looked like a group of kids had taken shovels, beaten him up, and then dumped his body right on his doorstep. Awesome, this day just kept getting better and better.

What the heck was he supposed to do with a dead body?!

Setting his stuff down, he considered going inside and waking up Mike. However, he wanted to see for himself first if this guy was still alive. It felt almost like a weird out of body experience to him as he crouched near the boy’s head. One of his eyes was swollen shut, and a trail of blood ran down the other side of his face. This kid just looked like a downright mess after Ashton sat back and stared at him for a moment.

“Hey dude, are you still alive there?” Ashton asked quietly before glancing up and looking around at the silent street around him. What if the person(s) responsible were still around? He reached out and slowly went to feel for a pulse on the guy’s neck. Fingertips touched cold clammy skin and then it happened, an instant agonizing pain that stabbed him straight through the skull.

Ashton couldn’t even scream as he flexed his arm back to his chest and fell to his side curled up in a ball opposite the stranger. Liquid fire pulsed through his veins as he groaned and squeezed his eyes shut as wave after wave pelted him relentlessly. Black dots waited in the corners of his vision as a feeling of nausea also started to form deep in his gut. His mouth felt dry as he slowly began to pass out.

“… Mi… Mike…” He panted out the syllables, but there was no way his friend would be able to hear him.

An awful cold feeling trailed up from his fingertips where he had touched the other guy.At first, he thought it was an autumn breeze cooling the sweat on his fingers from the guy’s clammy neck, but it was more than that. Glancing down as his vision swayed in and out of focus, Ashton squeaked in horror at the dark purple mist that had curled up his hand all the way to his forearm. This had to be a dream. There was no way this was actually happening.

“Wha… the fu-“ ?

* * *

 

The sun rose over the house from across the street, waking Ashton up in a matter of seconds, but even then he refused to move. He didn’t want to get up as he felt his back flare up in pain along with his stomach. Goose bumps littered every inch of his skin in the cool October morning. To top it off, he had the worst migraine he’d ever experienced in his life. So far, today was shaping up to be even worse than yesterday. That and he was definitely late for his first job. He wouldn’t even be surprised if he was fired for being a no-show.

A weak cough sounded beside him, and Ashton rotated his head to look at the blonde guy from the night before. His body shivered violently, and he was curled even tighter in a ball. As Ashton blinked languidly a few times in disbelief at how screwed up his life had gotten in a matter of hours he made an unimportant side note to himself that the kid also had a lip-ring.

Ashton sat up and whined at the strain on his back knowing that he was going to have to call off his morning duties. He could probably make it to his second job if he felt better by the afternoon, but there was no way he could work first shift at the store right now.

Without thinking, he nearly reached out to touch the boy again to shake him awake, when he remembered the blinding pain from last night. This stranger was the reason he’d spent the whole night sleeping on his front porch. Ashton paused uncertainly, but after a little debate he decided to try one last time. This way he’d know for sure if the guy was truly like Rogue from X-Men or something.

Gently, he grabbed the smaller guy’s shoulder and hesitated for a second. When he didn’t feel any pain, he carefully shook the guy back and forth while calling out to him a scratchy voice.

Add sore throat to the list of everything going wrong with me, Ashton thought pessimistically.

The boy made a noise in response that almost sounded like a low throaty moan in response to his attentions. Ashton halted in his tracks and glanced down at the boy’s face. His eyebrows were furrowed and a slow grinding motion started in his hips. Feeling his jaw slacken in shock, Ashton tried harder to shake the guy awake and even lightly started to slap the uninjured side of his face to double his efforts. He was not about to watch some stranger have a wet dream on his front porch at some ungodly time in the morning…

“Wake up!... Jeez my throat freaking hurts,” Ashton winced as he rubbed at the front of his neck while watching the stranger finally start to come to. Sky-blue eyes flickered open and stared unseeingly at Ashton for a long moment. He started to get unnerved by the blank stare when realization finally swooped down on the poor guy in an instant.

Uncertainty and panic filled his features and his body shook as he noticed just how cold he actually was. He was only wearing a t-shirt while Ashton had at least been wearing his jacket all night.

“What’re you doing on my porch?” Ashton asked bluntly wanting to cut to the chase. It was too early in the morning for time consuming niceties.

“Who are you? Where am I?” The words were fast and hoarse and the guy ended up in a coughing fit afterwards.

“Ashton Irwin. And we’re on the outskirts of Sydney. You?”

“Luke… Hemmings,” Luke frowned at him again before sitting up. He shook his head as if to clear it of the fog brushing against his mind before attempting to stand. As expected, he immediately began to buckle under his own weight and Ashton quickly rose up to catch him.

“Whoa, easy,” He croaked out with his ruined throat, “We both passed out here last night, and you look like you even had a heavy beating on top of that.”

Luke froze in Ashton’s grip and let out the strangest keening noise before falling to his knees with an obvious grimace on his face.

“What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?” Ashton fretted over the blonde worriedly as he remained doubled over for a good minute.

When he reached out to steady him, Luke surprised him by practically snarling out, “Don’t… touch me.”

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you,” Ashton apologized profusely as he crouched before him. His joints ached in protest, but he needed to figure out how to fix this.

“…Where’s the bus stop?” Luke eventually asked, breathing hard as he peered up to look Ashton in the eye once more.

“Just down the street if you take a right from my house. It doesn’t usually come around until nine or ten though. There’s no point in going right-”

“Listen, I know you probably mean well, but today and yesterday haven’t been… I need to go alright?” Luke phrased the last part like a question before standing awkwardly and stumbling down the stairs. He made it to the sidewalk before something happened.

Unlike before when Luke simply looked too weak to stand, Ashton could tell the moment that a terrible pain smacked into the other kid like a bag of bricks crushing him from above. He fell onto his side in the lawn, his chest was heaving for air like he simply couldn’t get enough in his lungs.

Was this an asthma attack of some kind?

“Shit,” Ashton hurried down the steps and rushed over to Luke. He barely even knew the guy, but already he was feeling overly concerned for this random guy. The panic only calmed in his chest when he noticed how the guy physical improved as he neared. It was too weird to be a coincidence. His greying skin, breathing, and trembling seemed to fade away in seconds and he already attempting to get up again.

“How can you look like death warmed over one second then sort of fine in the next?”

“I felt faint that was all,” Luke started defensively, “Leave me alone.”

“Wait here, I’m gonna go get my friend to help out.”

“I’m leaving, don’t expect me to be here when you come back.”

Ashton ignored him knowing he could easily track the dude back down in a matter of seconds even if he did try to flee. Picking up the key he’d dropped on the porch the night before, he entered the house and beelined for Mike’s room. His roommate was snoring softly while fast asleep on his stomach. The house was almost unbearably warm inside compared to the bitter chill of the outdoors.

“Mike!” Ashton hissed as he began to shiver again.

Mike stirred then blinked his eyes open to glare at his friend, “Seriously, you’re waking me up this early on my late day?”

“I have a problem,” he confessed as he ran a hand through his hair, beginning to get ridiculously stressed out by everything life was throwing his way.

His roommate’s eyes widened as they turned to stare at the rising sun filtering in through the blinds, “Ash, you’re late.”

Aston was never late for anything, so the disbelief in his friend’s tone gave him another little burst of anxiety. He still needed to call his boss when he had this situation under control.

“I know, but seriously you need to see this.”

“The hell is wrong with your arm!?” Mike yelped, jumping out of bed in record time to snatch up Ashton’s hand.

Both boys stared uncomprehendingly at the soft pink glow lighting from Ashton’s right arm. Two thin streaks originated from his pointer and middle fingers that crisscrossed down the length of his forearm. The light was bright almost like he had multiple light bulbs lit on the inside of his arm.

“What the fuck, Ashton?”

“I don’t know, what the-? Mike something really weird is going on!” A quick memory flash from the previous night entered his mind. The purple smoke that swirled perfectly up his arm. That must’ve been what caused this. It was strange though because the longer they stared at it, they both noticed it started to turn redder as the seconds past by.

“Anyways, it doesn’t hurt anything, so we’ll worry about this later,” Ashton began hurriedly as he grabbed Mike’s wrist and tugged him to the front door. “You gotta help me with this first.”

He shoved open the front door.

Luke was gone.


	2. A Fateful Gathering

Luke was not happy.

It was the understatement of the century, but he wanted to forget everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours. Maybe even the past two months.

Grimacing at the knot of tension in his gut, he stumbled down the street, noticing how the buildings became more familiar as he headed in the direction of the looming skyscrapers in the distance. At least he hadn’t been relocated somewhere completely different this time.

The further he moved away from Ashton though, the more the growing sense of apprehension and other unmentionable things became more apparent. Whatever that witch had done to him had really messed him up on the inside in more ways than one.

His fingers felt thick and numb from the cold as he pulled his phone out from his jean pocket. The screen refused to unlock at first until he blew some warm breath over his right hand for a moment. As soon as he got it to work, Luke pulled up his contacts and quickly went to his favorites section. Upon seeing his best friend’s name he hurriedly texted him the street he was on when he noticed how much battery life was left before calling him. If his phone died before he managed to get a word out then at least Calum would know where he was and grow suspicious.

The phone rang three times, and Luke felt the overwhelming feeling of disappointment surge through him. He was alone on a deserted street near the bad part of town. He really didn’t want to be stranded here for more than an hour.

“Luke? What’s up? It’s like seven in the morning,” Calum’s sleepy voice carried over the phone.

“Oh, thank God. Calum, please come pick me up, I already texted you the street. I’ll explain later, but please, I need your help.”

Luke bit his lip as he heard Calum groan in response over the line. He was getting nervous standing on the open sidewalk near downtown. It wouldn’t be long until people started venturing out of their homes.

“Fine, I’m leaving right now,” His friend eventually sighed out before adding as a side thought. “You owe me one though.”

“Sure, yeah,” The blonde agreed without much thought then he hung up and re-pocketed his phone.

The pressure and strain was starting to become a bit too much as he moved farther down the sidewalk, so he finally conceded to sit down against a tree in front of someone’s lawn. Sitting up, he curled into himself and pressed his folded arms into his lower abdomen unable to do much about the actual problem at hand. With every shift of his underwear and jean fabric, Luke felt like he was about to scream in frustration. There was only so much he could handle, and he was two seconds away from getting up to find a public restroom.

A faint wind sound like an electric fan alerted him to another presence as a bicycle rider swung around onto the street he was on. The rubber from the bike wheels squeaked against the pavement as the person braked, dropped the bike on the sidewalk, and then headed over to him.

“Why did you wander off like that? I told you I'd find you anyways.”

Luke glanced up to confirm his suspicions.

Yep, definitely Ashton.

He didn’t know whether to breathe out a sigh of relief as his problem dwindled down to a normal level of arousal or to freak out internally. This curse was going to be harder than what he originally thought. The symbol on the other boy’s arm already confirmed his previous internal suspicions as well. Ashton was practically his lifeline right now, and they didn’t even know anything about each other besides their names. His sanity rested in the hands of a stranger.

“Please leave,” Luke mumbled as he dropped his forehead against his bent up knees. He was exhausted and needed time to think this one out by himself.

“No, I need answers,” Ashton grounded out, becoming annoyed with his evasive behavior. “Like what the heck is this on my arm.”

“I don’t know,” Luke shrugged, not fully lying about it.

“But you have an idea right? I got this when I touched you last night after finding you passed out on my porch. Like what the hell am I supposed to do in situation? I mean look at it! It’s freaking turning blue! My arm is glowing streaks of blue down my arm! That’s not normal, and I’m trying not to freak out right now!”

“Well what the hell do you want me to do about it?! I have the shitty end of this deal anyways!” Luke growled wishing Calum would hurry up and get here quicker. It was only a fifteen-minute drive normally with traffic.

“What deal? What’s wrong with you?” Ashton lifted his hands up in disbelief looking more upset about this by the second.

“Nothing,” The blonde said warningly, not wanting Ashton to dig into his personal business.

“Well that’s helpful,” Ashton scoffed, running a hand through his messy hair while gesturing towards Luke with the other. “Glad we’re being honest and helping each other out here.”

“Just leave me alone! I don't even know you!” He reasoned.

Silence.

Luke peeked up and watched the bronzed skinned boy study his arm with slight fascination as the color morphed into a shimmering gold.

“I think I’ve become a human mood ring or something.”

Luke stiffened as he felt his pounding heart thud almost painfully against his rib cage. Was that really what was happening with the other boy’s arm? He had a feeling that was the case, and it wasn’t Ashton’s emotions clear on display. This was getting borderline insane!

“You found him.” The voice sounded disinterested, but the new person’s dark eyes sparkled with curiosity as he approached the other two.

The teen was dressed in tight black skinny jeans, and a black and yellow logo Nirvana hoodie. The loose hood was pulled over his head and it hung in front of his face making it hard to see his features. Luke could tell though that he was a male, and he had the brightest dyed red hair he’d ever seen that spiked out from the edges of the hoodie.

“What took you so long?” Ashton grumbled.

“It’s cold outside and I wanted to put on something warmer before you dragged me out here. I told you that before you went charging out the door.”

Ashton frowned at the other guy before turning back to stare down at Luke. The blonde’s breath hitched in fear as the other boy reached out for him again to pull him up under his arm. There was nothing he could do to prepare himself as pleasure slammed through his veins instantaneously. It was like being hit in the gut with a bowling ball.

Unexpected and painful.

Luke cried out and felt his legs buckle as his groin flared in restrained agony. He was well aware of the hot tears that trailed down his cheeks as Ashton let go of him while stammering out a mantra of apologies. Yeah, Luke definitely wished they could switch positions and have the glowing arm instead of this awful burden.

“I don’t think you should touch him anymore,” Ashton’s friend said, pointing out the obvious.

“Shut up, I was just trying to help,” Ashton said in a panic filled voice that made Luke feel a tad bit guilty. Not enough to actually care though. Right now, he was trying everything to picture major turnoffs, but nothing was working.

“Luke! What are you guys doing to him, go away or I’ll call the cops!”

Calum? Jeez, he must have been speeding like crazy to get here this fast.

“Calum, they-“

“Who are you?” Ashton confronted his best friend, sounding almost protective… No, that wasn’t quite right, it was something else he couldn't quite pinpoint.

“His friend,” Calum answered heatedly, “Now back off. I’m taking him home.”

“Calm down, we were just trying to help. I found him passed out-“

Luke cracked open his eyes and glanced up from where he was kneeling on the wet grass. Calum looked pissed. He was wearing his baseball cap backwards and one of his white tank tops. He must have been as cold as Luke. Calum must have jumped out of bed after hanging up with him on the phone and floored the gas peddle to get to him as soon as possible. The blonde felt relieved to have such a reliable best friend to count on. When this was all over, he would definitely be buying him something nice to make up for this mess he’d gotten him into.

Struggling to his feet, Luke watched as their tempers quickly escalated into the start of a physical fight. Calum surged forward, and Luke tried to rush in between them to stop the brawl that was about to start. Ashton saw what was about to happen and shoved him back hard out of the way before Calum landed a punch on the left side of Ashton's face.

“Calum, stop! He really was trying to help,” Luke panted, rubbing the searing flesh where Ashton had touched him.

Calum glared at where Ashton stood of few feet away cradling his face. If Ashton hadn’t shoved Luke away, the blonde would’ve been nursing a broken jaw most likely.

Maybe he should start thinking about getting Ashton something nice as well once this whole mess was sorted out.

Not wavering in his death glare staring contest, Calum walked over to Luke and brought an arm across his shoulder blades to lead him to the still running car parked in the road. Luke’s voice cracked as he struggled to let out a warning when pain blossomed throughout his back. Unlike the overwhelming pleasure of Ashton’s touch, Calum’s felt like raging hellfire throughout his entire body.

Luke yelped and jerked away from Calum, breathing heavily and eyeing the other three warily taking a couple steps back away from them.

The others stared back at him in confusion and worry plain in their eyes when the unnamed boy finally spoke.

“You know, why don’t we all just head back to our house and discuss this situation like normal people? This guy is practically an undead version of a succubus, and I'm sure everyone's got questions about this. Maybe we can figure something out instead of acting like a bunch of hot-headed idiots.”

Luke froze up in humiliation at the guy's observation skills while the other two turned to give the red-head puzzled looks.

“Trust me,” The guy chuckled, “This situation is a bit more fucked up than what it looks like on the surface.”

The blonde hated how truthful those words rang out.

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea,” Ashton mumbled as he watched his arm change into a light sea green for a few seconds then back to gold.

Calum nodded still looking a little unconvinced as he noticed Ashton's arm. When he glanced over to look at Luke though, guilt filled his usually happy features as he waited for his decision.

Luke swallowed feeling nervous about this as he too nodded, and followed the other boys over to Calum’s car.

The thing was though, he couldn’t really tell them the truth.

They’d never believe him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was surprised by the amount kudos this story already has. Thanks everybody! I'm glad you're enjoying it.  
> Once again, I'm sorry about typos and grammar errors and such.  
> I know everyone's personalities are kinda messed up right now. They should be more normal in the next chapter.  
> I'm so excited to get to the meat of this story. It's sort of a roller coaster. And very much Halloween themed.


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